Shortly after A Fistful of Dollars was a huge international hit, the Italian film market began making knockoff after knockoff. The first truly original Spaghetti Western that followed in the wake of the Sergio Leone film was Django, which raised the level of brutality of the genre to new heights, giving a bleak and often horrific flair to the films that followed. And follow they did: Django had over fifty unofficial sequels.

Franco Nero gets his first starring role as the title character (it's never quite clear if Django is a first or last or only name), a highly iconic stoic gunfighter, dragging a coffin behind him. In this initial outing, Django gets caught between Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo), an unreconstructed Confederate leading a red-clad version of the KKK, and an unruly group of marauding Mexicans. Django has more than one ace up his sleeve to even the odds between Jackson's soldiers and red-wearing racists and the Mexicans, as well as to further a complicated plot to make off with Jackson's gold. In between, he manages to rescue a prostitute, Maria (Loredana Nusciak) and gun down nearly everything that moves.

This is a highly entertaining albeit highly cynical view of the West through European eyes, with ample enough gunplay and gratuitous violence to satisfy most High Body Count devotees. Django himself is a peaceable man who wants nothing more than to bury the old gunslinging Django, but no matter where he turns his guns are needed. Quite a few sequences have carnage aplenty, with brutality being the order of the day. In one unforgettable sequence, General Hugo Rodrigues (José Bodalo) cuts off the ear of the racist preacher Brother Jonathan (Gino Pernice) and then feeds it to him before gunning him down in the muck. The action culminates in a harrowing climax that is hard to take in the extreme violence done to Django; Corbucci doesn't pull any punches here. During a drawn-out barroom brawl (sans breakaway furniture; every punch and prop feels incredibly real) is shot with a handheld camera, emphasizing the violence and lending a harsh immediacy to the sequence.

Almost as memorable as the extreme violence is the sheer filth of Corbucci's vision of the West. The streets of the nameless little town are pure muck at least five inches deep throughout the entire running time. Mud-wrestling devotees take note: an extended sequence finds three of the town's whores wrassling in the filth. The jangly electric guitar themes emphasize the parallels to Leone's films by cleverly mimicking Morricone's soundtracks. At the same time, composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov produces some startlingly original music, such as the theme for the Mexicans, a strident and discordant version of a Mexican dance.

Even on a third or fourth viewing, Corbucci's film still packs quite a wallop. The vision of a West where there is no good side, only different kinds of evil, may be cynical in the extreme, but it's played for maximum effectiveness here. And of course, that helps run up the kill count. Django is available only in Blue Underground's boxset of Spaghetti Westerns; although the release was briefly delayed apparently from a legal issue, the box should now be readily available. The film is uncut, with a running time 1m:07s longer than on the 1999 Anchor Bay release of the film.

Rating for Style: A-Rating for Substance: B+

Image Transfer

One

Aspect Ratio

1.66:1 - Widescreen

Original Aspect Ratio

yes

Anamorphic

yes

Image Transfer Review: Those who suffered through the 1999 Anchor Bay edition of Django will be astonished at the difference that the new transfer makes. This edition is taken from the camera negative, which allows for a much clearer and crisper picture. On the down side, there is some minor decomposition, some scratches and an occasional bit of waviness to the picture. However, the tradeoffs are worth it. The clarity and revived color are much superior. Gone are the many compression artifacts and excessive edge enhancement. We can even readily make out the texture of Django's hat of black felt, a most difficult material to render. There is some grain, but that is to be expected in a vintage low budget Italian production.

Image Transfer Grade: A-

Audio Transfer

Language

Remote Access

Mono

English, Italian

yes

Audio Transfer Review: In addition to the usual English dub, Blue Underground thoughtfully also provides us with the Italian dub and English subtitles. Both are quite adequate mono mixes with little hiss or noise. The dialogue is clear on both tracks and the music is highly effective. The English and Italian tracks are often quite different and occasionally completely contradictory. For example, when Django answers Major Jackson on the English dub, he says "I'd rather talk." On the Italian track, he says "What I'm doing is none of your business."

Extras Review: A 13m:25s featurette offers interviews with Franco Nero (not the same as and substantially longer than the featurette on the 1999 Anchor Bay disc) discussing the genesis of the project, the filming and the effect that it had on Nero's career. A lengthy set of production notes on the accompanying booklet contains serious spoilers, as does the featurette, so both should be saved until after your first viewing. A gallery offers 6 black & white stills, lobby cards and posters for the film from all over the world. Substantial bios and filmographies are provided for Corbucci and Nero, and an easter egg holds the trailers for the other three films in the Spaghetti Western Collection boxset.

Extras Grade: C

Final Comments

A hugely influential Spaghetti Western, with story and violence quotient that still have an impact today, in a greatly improved transfer from the 1999 edition.